Mysterious luminous nebula MAMMOTH-1 spotted in a distant part of the universe

An enormous, radiating nebula has been spotted at the heart of a cluster of early galaxies called a protocluster. This nebula caught the attention of astronomers due to the fact that the source of the powerful light emitted by it remains unknown.

This nebula is a glowing blob of gas located in a distant part of the universe, and was spotted by researchers from the Santa Cruz University led by Zheng Cai, a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Cruz as the lead researcher.

The brilliant glow of the ELANs were previously credited to have originated from quasars -- which are enormous celestial objects that emit enormous amount of energies and appear to be star-like in images taken by telescope. Also, quasars are likely to contain massive black holes.

This study has been published in the journal Astrophysics, which reveals that researchers dubbed the newly-discovered nebula MAMMOTH-1, which is the first one that's not linked to a quasar.

This finding leaves researchers questioning the bright emission of Lyman-alpha radiation by the nebula.

The researchers came up with a conclusion that states the MAMMOTH-1 comprises radiations strongly emitted by an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is covered by dust and goes unseen, leaving behind a very faint source that can be linked back to the nebula.

A super-massive black hole, which feeds on gas at the heart of a galaxy powers the AGN, which is a source of extremely radiant light.